The present invention relates to a sample relocation method in a charged particle beam apparatus and the charged particle beam apparatus automatically implementing this method as well as a sample for a transmission electron microscope.
In recent years, following upon a pattern micronization of a semiconductor device, there is studied the fact that a specified micro part of the semiconductor device is observed by a transmission electron microscope (hereafter, also called TEM) to thereby evaluate it or perform thereafter an additional working, and it is partially implemented.
In order to observe the specified micro part of the semiconductor device by the TEM, there becomes necessary a sample making work in which a sample is made by irradiating a charged particle beam to a surface of a sample substrate to thereby separate the specified micro part, and this sample is detached from the sample substrate by using a manipulator and moved, and fixed onto a sample holder for an observation.
Hitherto, in a case where the sample made on the surface of the sample substrate is carried to the sample holder, a probe is mainly used. In a sample carriage by the probe, there is an issue that it becomes necessary to bond the sample to the probe by a deposition or the like and, because of this bonding work, a work efficiency decreases and further a work time becomes long.
As one solving these issues, recently there is developed the fact that the sample is grip-carried by using a minute sample-gripping means called a so-called nano-pincette, which comprises one pair of left/right arms (e.g., refer to Patent Documents JP-A-8-257926 Gazette, JP-A-8-192382 Gazette, Japanese Patent No. 3109220 Gazette, JP-A-2003-65905 Gazette, and Japanese Patent No. 3495037 Gazette).
The technique of the minute sample-gripping means described in the above Patent Documents is roughly classified to one in which the left/right arms are simultaneously driven by a drive means such as electrostatic actuator, electromagnetic drive or oil pressure (the Patent Documents JP-A-8-257926 Gazette, JP-A-8-192382 Gazette, Japanese Patent No. 3109220 Gazette, Japanese Patent No. 3495037 Gazette), and one in which, without the left/right arms being simultaneously driven by the drive means, only one arm between them is driven (the Patent Document JP-A-2003-65905 Gazette).
In a case of the former of one in which the left/right arms are simultaneously driven, although an operation is easy, an attitude of the gripped sample depends on a gripped face of the sample and a shape of the sample.
Further, in a case of the latter of one in which the left/right arms are not simultaneously driven, although it is possible to control the attitude of the sample, there is a defect that the operation is not stable because the gripped attitude is unstable.
By the way, in a case fixing the sample onto the sample holder, if the sample exists in the same state as a state in which it originally existed on the sample substrate, in other words, e.g., if an upper face of the sample is perpendicular to the charged particle beam on the sample substrate, also when it is fixed onto the sample holder, it is necessary that the sample is fixed with the upper face of the sample being held perpendicularly to the charged particle beam intact.
However, in a grip carriage method of the sample, in which the mere minute sample-gripping means mentioned above is used, it is an actual circumstance that the an attitude of the
sample depends on the gripped face and the shape of the sample, or there is the fact that, from such a reason that an operation is not stable, the attitude of the sample on the sample holder deviates from the state in which the sample was originally placed on the sample substrate and, further in a case where the attitude of the sample on the sample holder deviates like this, the method does not have a correction means suitable for returning it to the original state.
The present invention is one made by considering the circumstances like these, and its object is to provide a sample relocation method in a charged particle beam apparatus and a charged particle beam apparatus, in each of which an attitude of a sample in a sample-relocated place can be held to the same state as the attitude of the sample before being relocated, as well as a sample for a transmission electron microscope.